Beijing 2022 Day 15 Review
The penultimate day of Beijing 2022 is here and it's another day to celebrate medals as we go over everything that happened in more in classic Off The Podium style! Are Canada celebrating another silver in speed skating or are they disappointed that it wasn't the gold? How excited are we for Sweden sneaking a gold in the curling? Should we stop New Zealand from being good in winter sports all of a sudden? Do lucky eggs deserve a place in the Winter Olympics? And why are we starting to get a bit sad about the Olympics coming to a close? Kiss your eggs and do the haka as we bring you more exciting action from Beijing!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium coming to you for another Beijing 2022 recap day 15. The penultimate day. How are we here? We're sad, we're upset. We're not winning medals. Well, one of us aren't. The others is. One medal at least. It's another action-packed day that we're going to get through, and I'm excited to be here. And so is the man whose country can keep winning medals. Silver, to be precise. It is Colin Hilding. Hello, Colin. Welcome back to the show.
COLIN HILDING: Thank you. And I will take all the credit for that silver medal. Oh, you should.
BEN WATERWORTH: You did. You were the one who skated it, and you didn't fall over.
COLIN HILDING: I sat in my living room, cheering her on. Still not understanding the rules of the mass start, but I mean, my cheering obviously contributed.
BEN WATERWORTH: So there's a start, and there's mass of people.
COLIN HILDING: And there's a whole bunch of point systems that can only come up on certain laps that nobody understands.
BEN WATERWORTH: And they're skating and they're speed, right? And then it all comes together. You watch it and you go, yeah, Netherlands. That's basically how it works.
COLIN HILDING: That's how the point system on only specific laps works. Now I understand.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, exactly, exactly. And speaking of point systems, if there was a point system on this show, he'd be winning. It is the GOAT, it is the MVP, it is the EMU of the Plains, it's Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. It's good to be back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you understand the mass start in speed skating?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I haven't listened. I've got issues with the mass start, but we'll get to that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I really enjoyed the mass start. I thought it was entertaining. What's wrong with you two?
COLIN HILDING: It's definitely entertaining. I just don't get it. I'm sure there's ways to make it more entertaining too.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not track cycling where you've got to do 58 laps, divide the square root of 7, and then do a three-legged arse-kicking contest to try and win a point. Anyway, silver medal, we'll talk about it when we're on the topic of this. Canada to Avani Blodin. Blondin. Thank you. I mean, was this again expected? Surprise. She's obviously already got a gold at these games, but, you know, good day to be a Canadian. Even though I thought she was going to win it, she got pipped on the line. But outside of that, she did well.
COLIN HILDING: She got a silver. Yeah, well, I mean, for her, it's exciting because she failed to medal in the last Olympics. And that was kind of one of our big letdowns from Pyeongchang. And that was, I think, the majority of the excitement when the team won, but she was part of the team pursuit a couple of days ago is that, oh, she's finally got her Olympic medal. I don't know what her chances are. It's funny because after the race, I kind of look back, I'm like, was she kind of expected to medal as I see that she's actually medalled several times in world championships in this event? Commentators definitely talk that down. They basically said, oh, she's one of the top qualifiers. And then only after it was over, they said she was one of the favourites to win this. I'm like, if she's one of the favourites, it's OK to tell us that beforehand. We're Canada. We'll forgive you. We're not Australia. But I was I mean, it was it was like you said, it's entertaining. I don't understand. Like, Ben, can you explain to me this point system on certain laps? I don't get why there's a benefit to sprinting on certain laps when the other Canadian was the one who was in the lead the whole time and then apparently wasn't even there at the end. Like, it doesn't make any sense to me at all.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I'm making fun of you both. I'll be honest.
COLIN HILDING: I didn't really understand it, but I was hoping in this intro, one of us would have been, well, this is how it works.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, my guess is, similar to say the points races in cycling, is that it allows you better positioning. And then when you get no Jarrod shaking his head, I'm already wrong. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Jarrod, do you get something out of this?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It doesn't work because it should be more like in cycling, where they've got these, like, I don't know, every, like, fourth lap or whatever, is like a sprint point and you get points. But the issue I have is they award points to the top three when it gets to these intermediate sprints, and the points you get are three, two, or one. And then if you win the whole race, you get like, I was like 60, 40 and like 20 points or whatever. So these intermediate sprints are pointless. Like they had a point in like the qualifying, like, okay, if you win the sprint, you'll be through. But then when it gets to the final, it's like, what's the point of having them? If like it's just for like minor places, it's stupid. It's like a small final or a B final. It's just determining like, I don't know, fifth to like tenth in the race. It's just dumb to me. I'm like, why not give more points out on those or reduce the points for the end sprint? So it's like a bit more tactical and interesting. Whereas I just get rid of them and have everybody like, it's great having everybody on the on the rink together and like seeing people wipe out is amazing. But like, what's the point of having these these laps in between where people are? I picked up three points. Congrats. You still lost.
COLIN HILDING: And like if you're going to have points like this, it should have some bearing on the end. And I want to see it where it's like, OK, well, there's our top three finishers. But let's wait and see. They immediately called the results of this the second they crossed the finish line. It wasn't even in question. So, yeah, let's let's make the points on the sprint laps worth a little bit more, or let's just do away with it, one or the other.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's what I was going to ask. Like, because when you see them crossing the line, it's like, boom, gold medal. But so like, yeah, what is the point of the points?
JARROD LOOBEEK: There isn't any.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's just using like the qualifying in the semis, but in the final has no bearing at all, which, I mean, I would just assume when you have a race like this that, yeah, it's just a race. It's simply a race. But maybe then they don't want it just to become, maybe then we become short track. You know, maybe that's where they look down on their little brother or something like that. I don't know. But it is like the thing that I found entertaining about like the crashes of it. It's like in short track climbing, like you crash and you boom, you're into the ball. This one, like when they fall over, there was the Dutch World Champion. She kind of fell over and she was doing like 30 loops on the track. It's almost like she was figure skating.
COLIN HILDING: And she got out of her arms like, why me?
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like it's actually almost like Mario Kart, where you get hit by the shell and you're like, like going off the side. That was the fun part of it. But it's a great visual. It is. It is. That's funny. When I talk to my dad, oh, and I'm just watching live on the bobsledding. And Canada are on their side. Speaking of crashes, two Canadian women have just died in the bobsled. They're moving. It's OK. Cynthia Pia as well. She was the one who choked in the bottom and the monobob, wasn't she? Oh, well, good, good Olympics for Cynthia.
COLIN HILDING: She's Cheetos or Oreos or whatever her sponsors are not going to be happy with her.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, you know what that means, Jarrod, Bree and Kiara are going to be at least 11th now. Come on. Thanks, Canada. Pick the sled up like cool runnings, you lazy Canadians. Jesus. Did you know, by the way, that Jamaica has a bobsled team in these Olympics? I've not seen anything on TV today. Stealing that joke from Jarrod. The I can't remember what I was going to say. It's it's entertaining. Like, oh, that's what I was saying. My dad, I was talking to my dad the other day and he's like, Oh, so I was watching the speed skating team. That's boring.
COLIN HILDING: What speed skating?
BEN WATERWORTH: Boring. They're skating fast, dad.
COLIN HILDING: It is literally the fastest sport in the Olympics that is not powered by a sledge. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's it's it's it's epic. Like it is really, really fun. And I like it's always one of my favourite sports that I will always watch at the Olympics. So actually, in all fairness, the Canadians, when they crash, they did cross the finish line. So actually crashed in the last corner.
COLIN HILDING: So maybe they still should have picked up that sled, gone back to the very position the Jamaicans crashed in and carried it across. That's the way you do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Irene Schuytten, she took the goal. That's her third gold of these Olympics, I believe. So great job for Irene and Francesca Lola Brigada, Brigida of Italy, getting getting herself warmed up and ready to go for Milan Cortina. She got the bronze.
COLIN HILDING: One more thing I just want to add on that race that I didn't even know. I don't think that this had been announced ahead of time. CBC's longest standing commentator, this guy's been around since the 60s. I mean, we're talking decades upon decades that he's been a commentator on CBC. He's the voice that everybody associates with Olympics now because he's been calling. He was actually let go from CBC after Sochi, and they intentionally brought him back for Pyeongchang. They're like, Oh, you know what? Sorry, we laid you off four years ago, but we need you. This guy, Steve Armitage, it was that race was his final call. And I remember listening to it in the middle of the night last night and thinking, it's like, wow, you know, it's amazing. This guy's still around. And then I basically turned off the TV after that. And then I woke up this morning and I picked up where I left off. And the overnight anchor guy basically said, you just saw Steve or you just listened to Steve Armitage's last call. And they showed basically, you know, they've got all their individual booths and everything. He got up and walked out and everybody got up out of their own booths and gave them a standing ovation outside of the booths. So, you know, it's one of these legends that's just retired. And it sort of came out of nowhere. And I looked up like, was this announced ahead of time? As far as I could tell, nobody knew about this until less than 24 hours ago. So I'm glad that I actually was able to watch that live and appreciate Steve Armitage, even more so than I appreciated Yvonne Blondin.
BEN WATERWORTH: You should get him on the show. Talk to him.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah. If he lives long enough to do it, sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: You just killed another one, Colin. Well done. Great job. Before I talk about a couple of other big ones, because there's a bit of a rant I want to go on. I wouldn't be on Off The Podium with Ben being able to yell again if we couldn't go on a rant. In the men's mass start, it was bronze to Seunghoon Lee of Korea, silver to Jae Won Chung of Korea, and gold to the best named athlete at these Olympics, Bart Swings from Belgium. I love this guy. I've been following him on social media, I think since Pyeongchang when he got a silver or bronze back in Pyeongchang. Great name. But this bit of history for Belgium, this is their first gold medal at the Winter Olympics since 1948, when the great pair of Michelin-Lanois and Pierre Baguette won the pairs in figure skating. So, a big massive drought of Belgian Winter Olympics has been broken. Jarrod Barth swings. He's swinging all the way to Antwerp tonight, isn't he?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, what a man. And what a way to break the drought, you know. We were complaining about our 12-year gold medal drought. The Belgians, just 74 years waiting for that gold medal. Every time they got close, being like, oh, could it be this year, could it be this year? And finally, they've done it, and what a man to do it. What a legend.
BEN WATERWORTH: What an absolute champion. And again, like the Belgians, I think they're the Canada of Europe. They're just so nice and polite. Like people think the Swiss are, but like the Swiss are getting a bit cocky, these Olympics. They're winning a bit too many. Like the Belgians, like they're just polite. They're a bit like Canada when they've got multiple languages. Like, are you going to be speaking in French, Dutch, German? You don't know. They've got a cool flag. They've got a great racing track when it comes to Formula One. And now they've got amazing waffles. Amazing waffles. Exactly. The luncheon meat is pretty good as well. Just amazing. Can we celebrate more of Bart Swing's column? This guy, this guy, what a man. He's got a great name and just he's Belgian, like ticks all the boxes.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, when I was watching it last night, his name is basically, I don't remember if we ever brought him up in Pyeongchang. Maybe you did, but I think we did.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do remember because I think it's why I followed him on social because I remember talking about him because of his name.
COLIN HILDING: The funny thing is, though, is that it never I don't know if I missed it. I was pretty drowsy at that point. I don't know if I missed it in the call, but I didn't realise that they hadn't meddled in so long. And it's not a country you would think would struggle that much to meddle. I mean, sure, they're not France, but they're France Junior, right? And they've got some snow ish.
BEN WATERWORTH: They've got some snow is Afghanistan, but you don't see them going 70 odd years without a medal.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, New Zealand has a couple of medals, and you would think Belgium could pull off one, but like Bart Swing's, you're the you're you are the man Bart Swing's.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's just what was wasn't there a Eurovision song recently, Jarrod? It was something Swing's like Kiss Kiss Swing Swing's or something. Was that Belgium as well? Or am I thinking of a different Germany? I think Germany. Right. OK, like I just I hear his name and I think of that song like we like, I mean, if we were talented and had the time and cared enough, we could like easily do a parody song of this guy with that song. But I mean, did Jamie check out Bart Swing's Colin like daily every day like Jamie, check out Bart Swing's.
COLIN HILDING: Jamie was probably asleep for six hours before that came up. But I will make sure to show in the morning and I will report tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is where I hope if he gets if he's married that he's a swinger, because like it's in his name right there. Hey, Bart, do you swing? Well, look at my name. So swinging, Colin, is when married couples always have to explain to him. But congratulations to Belgium. You mentioned it before. Let's get this over and done with. New Zealand, Nicoportius, gold medal in the half pipe. Let's be honest, this event doesn't count because it's crap. This now means that New Zealand have won more gold medals in Australia in the Winter Olympics, these Winter Olympics, not overall, of course. Took you 70 years to win one. Now you got two. Oh, look at us, Brew, we're so good. We've been in Australia. But I don't think this was ever in doubt. He was heavily, heavily favourite to win this. I'll be completely honest with you. I didn't watch any of it. From what I heard from you two, I didn't miss out on much. But Jarrod, how are we feeling about Niko? I mean, congratulations, New Zealand, our brothers, sisters, siblings to the right of us. But, you know, similar to Pyeongchang, it was OK to give them one medal, but now they're just being cocky.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's a tough one. You have Australia's most successful winter Olympics ever, but then New Zealand beat us. So I'm like, oh, can we really call it that anymore now? I'm like, bring out the inquiries time, isn't it? Frustrating, but I think kind of fitting, too. It's like in the same way that when Australia got our first winter Olympic gold, we got two at the same game. It's like New Zealand just copying us, doing the same thing. Always trying to be like us, you know, aspiring to bigger and better things. But congrats to him. I mean, the event was trash, if I'm being honest. I feel like, so like 12 competitors, three runs each, what's that? 36 runs, maybe like four of the runs were landed in this entire event. Like it was just, I don't know. The quality was not Olympic quality.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hence why New Zealand won it, let's be honest. Colin, any thoughts on Nico Portius winning the goldiest?
COLIN HILDING: I will say he definitely is one of the ones who came closest to Olympic quality, despite the conditions. I feel bad for everybody in the competition. Because I got beaten by New Zealand? Well, if you watch the competition, there's lots of reasons to feel bad for him. I don't think I've ever seen so many single-digit scores on runs. I mean, you have people going into their final runs, and it was like run one, four, round two, six point seven, five. And it really was the weather conditions, the wind, the blowing snow and all that. And they decided to go ahead with this event. And I've seen so much criticism since it ended saying, you literally put people's lives at risk. And when you see some of it, I would go back and watch some of the highlights if you can, just to see how many times people came close to death on their first jump. The other New Zealander, I can't remember what his name was. What's his name? Ben, I think. Ben something or other.
BEN WATERWORTH: There was a Miguel Porteous, Nico's brother.
COLIN HILDING: There was the third guy who was supposed to be number 12 in the finals. On one of his qualification runs or something like that, they showed the replay, and it might have been one of the most brutal things I ever saw. Until the run started, where he basically landed on his head on the lip of the half pipe, was carried off on a stretcher. It was so brutal. And then we were having people literally driving their heads to the solid ice of the half pipe over and over and over again. I was starting to wonder if somebody was going to die. And this as soon as it ended all over Twitter, all you're seeing is like they should have postponed this event. I feel embarrassed that these people had to go out there. Credit to the skiers that they actually had the guts to do this, but also stupidity on the skiers that they didn't all bed together and say, no, we're not doing this. We're going to die out there. There are wind screens. This is one of the few events with wind screens. And still people would get to the top of the half pipe, and you would just see their bodies blow backwards.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what it is? The organisers were finally like, you freestyle skiers are lazy. You are doing this today. We're giving the Alpine skiers the day off. That's what it was. They've worked their asses off all Olympics. So you go out there and ski. Lazy. We're going to make the cross-country skiers do 20 kilometres less because they've had a hard Olympics. But you freestyle skiers, you get off your asses and ski. That's what it was. Ben Harrington is who...
COLIN HILDING: Of course it was a Ben.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, two positives I'll quickly say for this before I go on a New Zealand rant here. I had to laugh at the New Zealand Olympic team's Instagram today where they posted CITIUS, OUTTIUS, FORTIUS, PORTIUS! Gold for, like, I thought that was quite clear. Well done, New Zealand. Well played. And the Haka. We talked about this, I think, with Zoe, but just such a great thing to be able to see there with New Zealand doing that. And I did love the footage of the Chinese officials standing there just having absolutely no clue what the fuck was going on next to them while the New Zealand team did a Haka right in front of them. But a couple of things. Mel McLaughlin. Now, look, this kind of ties into a bit of a fails before, again, not a Channel 7 employee yet, but I still have to get my last pay, so I'll be careful what I say here. I'm doing the interview with Nico. Okay, yep, doing well, asking the standard questions. Then the awkward ending question where she's like, oh, so now as an Australian, we've got to claim you as our own, right? You grew up in Australia, so can you be ours? And Nico's like, oh, bro, not this again.
COLIN HILDING: Like, oh, give it a rest.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, he's basically telling her to shove it. And she's all like, oh, come on, not even a quarter of this medal can be Australia's. And he's like, oh, oh, no, it's all New Zealand's. Like, I'm kind of like, I get the joke. We like to claim people, but like kids just won Olympic gold for his country. The country is celebrating. He's just like, oh, you're ours. So good on you, Nico, for telling her to fuck off. But on the flip side, I actually just checked out Twitter just before we came on air. And admittedly, I was a bit late today posting our episode on social media. We had a long episode last night. It was like three in the morning. I was tired. So I was like, fuck it. I'm going to post it tomorrow. So by posting the medal tally for Day 14, halfway through Day 15, when New Zealand had won another gold, admittedly a bit confusing. But having said that, of course, I don't list the entire medals. I only do the top 10, and then I put where Australia and Canada are if they sit outside the top 10. Yesterday, Australia was in 17th place. Now we are in 18th place because New Zealand has moved ahead. We got a reply from a Mick Jale, that is J-A-L-E, not like I'm going to jail, to which he replied, that's not true. Aussie is 18th. Like straight away because like New Zealand had obviously gotten a gold. So I'm like, okay, calm down, bro. To which I've looked at their Twitter page, and everything is just like completely pro-New Zealand. And they've even retweeted somebody on Twitter going, last time New Zealand beat Australia at an Olympic Games resulted in the construction of the Australian Institute of Sport. They're basically saying, okay, we suck so much we have to create an entire body of sport. And then can I just point out the incorrectness of somebody here who basically said, oh, is this the first time New Zealand has ever beaten Australia on the Winter Olympic medal tally? Now, okay, as a proud Australian who doesn't want to be beaten by New Zealand, even I know that we've been beaten by New Zealand in the winter before. Back in 1992 at Annalise Koberger won the silver medal in the slalom. Australia hadn't won a medal yet. No, your history in New Zealand. Don't jump on the winter bandwagon now because you've beaten us. You didn't give two shits about winter sport two weeks ago. They'd all brew with beating Australia. Jesus Christ. Cocky New Zealanders, the worst type.
COLIN HILDING: I just want to say I fully support our New Zealand listeners, and I want to remind them how Ben decided to put up an Australian every day during Tokyo. And this is how bitter he gets now that he can yell again because New Zealand is beating Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's me putting up an Australian every day in Tokyo got to do with me yelling at New Zealand winter sports right now?
COLIN HILDING: You're complaining to yourself, oh, everything's pro New Zealand. That's kind of your reputation on the show.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not that it's pro New Zealand. It's that you've got cocky New Zealanders shoving it in our faces. Guys, it took you 70 years to win a gold medal.
COLIN HILDING: As opposed to the cocky Australian.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was celebrating our achievements. It's a difference.
COLIN HILDING: Which they're literally doing.
BEN WATERWORTH: But they're not celebrating their achievements. They're rubbing shit in our faces.
COLIN HILDING: I support you, New Zealand.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, go to fucking Wellington.
COLIN HILDING: Good job, Nico, Miguel, Ben, Faceplanter, I don't know, all of you guys. We welcome you all, our new New Zealand overlords.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've lived in New Zealand, all right? I'm sure if I won a gold medal, they'd be like, oh, bro, you lived in New Cargill for 18 months, can we claim you? No, fuck off, you can't.
COLIN HILDING: I just watched a guy on the replay here of The Halfpipe get to the top, do a backflip, land straight on his stomach, and he's actually skiing off the course, rubbing, grabbing his gut.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, that's the type of New Zealander I want to see. Just go and go. Did you see the male interview, Jarrod, when she was bombarding little Nicko with those questions?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did. She should have like... It just got to a point where I'm like, you should have stopped, like make the joke and then stop. And then she carried on too long. I was like, leave this poor guy alone. He doesn't want to talk to you anymore. He's probably got a million and one other interviews to go and do, just like, let it go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let it go. Do they ever do that in Canada at all, Colin, with like an American, like anybody? I mean, I don't even know if they would have done that back with Dale. Like, oh, you're technically Canadian, Dale.
COLIN HILDING: No, the most we'll get is it'll be mentioned very briefly off there. I found, especially in analysing these Beijing Olympics, a lot of it has to do with the way you're mentioning the Aileen Gu stuff. I'm like, I'm looking now for CBC kind of building up the same way, and the most we'll ever do is you'll get one or two mentions. And then as soon as the events are over and done with, that's it. But I don't think it's ever been mentioned on the air in like a bragging way. You might get the commentator saying, and interesting fact, there's actually a Canadian connection with this athlete. I want to go back and see what it was with Dale, because I guarantee if it was ever mentioned, it was probably just something that's like, and he actually was born in Canada. Moving on, in other news, that's probably it. That's so CBC.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I was mentioning to you watching the snippets from Vancouver when Eddie McGuire was basically showing all the Canadian tweets bagging out Australia and Dale, that I think there were some trying to claim him at some point, but then they were just ripping into him like, you can fucking have the sourpuss. We beat him in the medals or whatever it is and all that kind of stuff. But one thing actually I really appreciated today, just quickly before I forget, is it was a really cool graphic at one point Channel 7 had. They sort of had like the Hall of Fame of like Australian winter medals, and they like had kind of created this graphic where it was like a trophy cabinet, and they went through every single one of our medals. It was really, really cool. I don't know if you saw that, Jarrod. So like you literally had like a Lilahama medal on a counter with a photo frame of like the relay team, then Zali, then you had like Stephen and Liz, and like it went through every single Olympics. It was actually really, really cool. So, of course, Canada can't do that because it would take too long. New Zealand would be over in five seconds because, you know, they've only won six medals.
COLIN HILDING: No wonder the New Zealand listeners are snarkily replying to Ben on Instagram.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I can't believe you didn't reply to that comment and post an updated medal tally using the total as the order.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, well, there's an idea. I actually replied politely. I replied saying, like, this was a medal tally from the end of Day 14 when Australia was in 17th. Like, I was polite. It was just a factual reply. So if I get some snarky, cunty New Zealand reply, then I will send a picture of that. Or maybe I'll send a picture of the overall medal tally from the Winter Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: You could very well just update it tomorrow with an extra win for Australia and claim Nico as your own.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Zoe, she was born here.
COLIN HILDING: So, you got to just wipe everything off New Zealand on the medal tally.
BEN WATERWORTH: They just wipe everything off New Zealand in general. That's the plan inside of that. I actually, once I finished recording last night, watched the end of the semi between Rock and Sweden in the eye. That was very entertaining. Did both of you, Jarrod, did you stay up and watch that, or did you go straight to bed?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not. I didn't need to know who Slovakia was going to verse because they're going to win.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're confident. You know, your boys are going to bounce back. Colin, did you watch it?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, it was the shootout that wouldn't end. It reminded me of the Summer Olympics with the women's soccer. I really thought. Sweden again. Exactly. I really thought that Rock was going to blow it and that some people were going to, I don't know, be shot and killed when they got home. Because for them to, everything that's happened in these Olympics, for Rock to not come home with a hockey medal, it would have been like if Canada came home without a curling medal. But it was intense. It came right down to the wire. I don't know. What was it? Like seven or eight shots that finally came down to?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, something like that. And Sweden basically had like two match points, didn't they? Which I just felt bad for them. I really did. And I legitimately was thinking about the women's final as well on the soccer. So I'm just like, oh, no, poor Sweden.
COLIN HILDING: But I was trying to get back to sleep at that point. And I'm like, oh, come on. I just want this to be like this is exciting and all that. But I just want this to be over so I could fall asleep. I need to know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, it was whatever time that was at three o'clock, whatever. But yeah, I mean, that was the most excited I've ever seen Russians. So it's not often you see Russians with emotion. I mean, God, imagine if that was a fiend. They would just be like, yes, we got to go.
COLIN HILDING: And I did send you this. I'm going to be watching the Swedish coach, though. It wasn't me elaborating this. I sent you guys the pictures. The Swedish coach right before the shootout actually went down, and he was rubbing the backsides of his players. We're not talking like a little pat on the back or pat on the bum. He was rubbing, and he went through probably four players in the pictures that I sent you. I sent you like two of them. And all of a sudden, he turns and he looks at it. He realises the camera's on. I mean, he gives this smile like, yeah, you saw what I just did. Like, this guy is our sexual predator of the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sexual predator of the Olympics, not the bow brother.
COLIN HILDING: Well, let's find out what this guy's name is. It'll be our daily, our daily, daily rapist. Yeah, daily rapist or whatever. Yeah, I want to watch. I want to watch this guy because he seems very touchy feely with his players. They may have just thrown it because they're tired of being sexually abused by their coach.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, you know, actually what that that reminds me of. I've told you, I think I sent you the clip of when I was doing commentary in Canada, and I kept mentioning the butt groats, and I got told off, right?
COLIN HILDING: Like, again, this was going to go where you were like fondling your players.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, they're 16.
COLIN HILDING: Get back in the booth.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're 16. They're too old for me. Like, it was a shocking thing that I would mention butt groat because I was commenting on it and my my lead commentator guy was like, stop saying butt groat. What the hell? Like, maybe it's just an Australian thing that when you actually sit in that picture, I'm like, OK, it's kind of funny. But yeah, that's kind of a terminated demon in sport. You grab someone on the arse and go, good job, friend. Like Jarrod knows, this is an Australian thing in sport. We just slap him on the arse. Good job, mate. Well done. You don't do it in Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Well, this was not again. This was not a slap. He was massaging.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like this is the Swedish massage, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: This is a demonstration of the first guy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, that list is right now. Look at Colin explaining that very well.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, I got a Swedish background. I know how to do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're just jealous because Jamie hasn't done that to you since you last had kids.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, come on. Jamie does that on a daily basis. Just doesn't get her anywhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: So the other way around, Jamie's upset that you haven't done that to her since the kids. But obviously, rock go through. They will play Finland, Slovakia, Sweden. Jarrod wants to be done in the next 19 minutes, of course, because the bronze medal match is happening there. It's the first time Sweden's ever lost a semifinal. So there's your stat. But are you confident? Like, are you happy that you're playing Sweden and not rock here, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I didn't mind either way. I think it's kind of more exciting to have rock in the final, because they're such stereotypical villains. It's just fun to have them there, you know? Not as villainous as, you know, when they were like the Soviet Union, but still up there, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hello to all our Russian listeners listening to the show.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But it's endearing, right? They're always the villains. It's just fun.
COLIN HILDING: Well, like, first of all, I love Ben. You're my man when exactly where mine went. The first thing he said was Iceland. I'm like, yeah, Russia is the Iceland of the real world. That's right. But it's true. Like, we were mentioning Alex Ovechkin yesterday. Like, everybody loves Ovechkin. And I would argue, even though it's really been Ovechkin-Crosby for the last 15, 16, 17 years, that's sort of the battle. I would argue that in Canada, you probably have just as many people who support Ovechkin as they do Sidney Crosby. And Sidney Crosby is supposed to be Mr. Canada. But during the, I think it was the Vancouver Olympics, when Canada played Russia in the quarterfinals, it was like, unlike anything, it was probably the most entertaining first period I've ever seen in hockey. Where there are montages, you could probably still look up to this day, where the whole talk was, we really got to be careful. Alex Ovechkin is going to walk all over Canada. And the Russian team is going to be brutal. And Canada went out there, and it was the most physical game Canada ever had. And there's montages where every Canadian player is basically body checking Ovechkin, slamming him into the boards. And there's actual clips where Ovechkin is getting off the ice, and you could almost see the birdies twirling around his head. It was so cartoony and ridiculous. But that's the narrative you always have. It doesn't matter how good they are. It doesn't matter who's on the team. You want them to be the villains, and that's the way they're always going to be portrayed. If they win, great. If they don't, you've got your villain. I think they would embrace that.
BEN WATERWORTH: The difference with Ovechkin, though, is he would have bitten the bird's heads off and gone out drinking with them probably afterwards. Jarrod, if you've never seen footage of Ovechkin winning the Stanley Cup, getting drunk, all the fun stuff, I implore you to Google Alex Ovechkin Stanley Cup win just to see him getting quite intoxicated and celebrating quite a lot.
COLIN HILDING: Can you imagine Ovechkin and Kiefer Sutherland together?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, fuck, and a Christmas tree. Just going crazy. I actually, in all seriousness, I actually really do love Russia, and it's one of the top countries I would love to go to. I actually love Russian people. I think they just seem very serious and to the point and know what they're doing. And it would just be so interesting to be in Russia to see movies. Everyone's probably American who's a villain, you know? And the difference is, whereas Americans every now and then are like, oh, no, we can't portray Russians as evil. Let's not be that mean. Russians are like, yes, Americans, always evil, always, never. Who cares offend America? Death to America.
COLIN HILDING: I love that it was Eileen Gu who said that.
BEN WATERWORTH: So it's a very Chinese accent that was being American there. But look, I'm still very much Team Finland. I just, everything on board that tomorrow for Finland to win it. Just so much. So Colin, are you, I mean, I don't, I know I sort of mentioned about Finland, but does this change your mind that it's rock or kind of who would you prefer to win the gold tomorrow?
COLIN HILDING: Well, so this is the complicated thing. I would be rooting for Finland because I want the underdog to win. But I feel like we're two Olympics in now with these last minute cancellations, these last minute amateur teams or semi pro teams playing. And it really has not gone the way anybody's expected now two times in a row. And I feel like we might never get this again if we don't have an expected result of rock winning. Slovakia being in the semis, again, that's a great underdog story. Finland being in the finals is a great underdog story. But it's almost putting this asterisk on the game saying, clearly nobody came prepared because they didn't have a chance to come prepared. And clearly we're looking at the C-rate players. And I don't think that's the case. I just think that it's unfortunate there's going to be so... I already know that there has been and there will continue to be so much criticism because it's so unpredictable and it's so all over the place that it's never going to be viewed as these are proper Olympic hockey gold medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would disagree in the, particularly Finland making the final as a surprise. These are basically, they were the two favourites coming into this when the NHL players didn't go into it. Finland, world champions, was it 2018, 2019, lost last year to you guys in the final. I think they're two in the world. And I think for the most part, obviously, with a lot of these European countries, why they're the favourites, is because they weren't overly affected by the NHL, because, yeah, you're going to lose a Vetchkin and a couple of other players here and there, but for the most part, they're going to be using their KHL players and all that anyway. So that's why I think they're more stacked. I don't know if Canada looked at that. I mean, I don't think Canada were predicted to, I don't even know, in their top five favourites going into these Olympics. So it wasn't really much of a surprise that you guys went out in the quarterfinals.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I think we were seeded, Fits, weren't we?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so I mean, at the end of the day, like it wasn't really much of a shock, and America just had college kids. So, you know, it might be like, I get it, Slovakia beat, not to take away from Slovakia beating the USA, Jarrod, but like, I mean, you know, had you beaten them, you know, with the NHL players, and yeah, we'd be talking here, that's an upset. But I mean, come on. We would have. Yeah, I mean, they only beat China 8-0. Does that mean if Australia were there, we're only one spot below China, that we might have had a chance against the Americans? Maybe. We scored a couple of goals against Canada. I reckon we would have scored three goals against Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Like I mentioned this before, Pyeongchang, that I was actually really excited that at least one, not that I never won NHL again, but I was excited at least once we would have non-NHL players in it, because that sort of goes back to the old days, everything pre-noggino when the Olympics was something different than the NHL. And to a certain extent, these players would take it more seriously than NHL players would, because a lot of the NHL players, this is just another thing they do. Oh yeah, there's the Olympics. It's like the All-Star game. It's just we go overseas. But it's the fact that we haven't had enough time for it to matter to these players, enough time for countries to put together the best teams that they can. And I'm sure NHL players will be back next time, but I just hope that if there is another cancellation at any point in the future, we have a cancellation months and months out. So countries can really assemble their best teams. These teams can train together and probably actually meet before they play their first game, which I'm sure didn't happen until they were in isolation.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's interesting that there are talks sometimes about the NHL wanting to push for ice hockey to return to the Summer Olympics, because that doesn't affect their season if it's held in that part of the year, which I'm all on board for 2032. Bring back ice hockey to the Summer Olympics for Brisbane, so Australia can return to ice hockey in the Summer Olympics. We've got 10 years to get a team together. Nathan Walker will be, I don't know, like 40-something by then. He can stick around, you know, bringing on board. And again, technically, it still would be the Winter Olympics, because again, it's in winter in Australia in 2032. So, I mean, Joe, I know you're on board for this. You'd love to go watch your Slovakian boys play in Australia.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, under the provisor that Slovakia is there, I'm all for this proposal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. Colin, how would you feel about ice hockey being at the Summer Olympics?
COLIN HILDING: Like, it wouldn't bother me, other than the fact that this is the main event. Like, what else will be the main event of the Winter Olympics?
BEN WATERWORTH: Ski mountaineering. We have never talked about this. The fact that ski mountaineering is coming in 2026, because that event is going to be awesome.
COLIN HILDING: Well, you know what? I showed Jamie, when we were watching the halfpipe, this just shows how good the halfpipe was. It was kind of car crash good, but I was able to tune out in the middle of it. I said, Jamie, you've never heard of ski ballet? Let me show you something on YouTube. She was not a fan, but I would be for ski ballet becoming the main event. But like, you need something, you know, and it would be fun to see the NHL players do this, and it would be just that not being in the middle of the season makes it more special for them as well. So, yeah, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. I just would hope that we would have something. No, let's revamp the mass start speed skating, and that can be the... Let's have 50 people on the ice at the same time in a mass start.
BEN WATERWORTH: Royal, Battle Royale, basically.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly. Take away the points. Every man for himself, make it 50 kilometres on ice, and there's your new main event. That replaces the gold medal hockey.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Let's have ice hockey at both, you know, and tweak one of them. One have like the basketball, like it's three-on-three ice hockey or whatever.
BEN WATERWORTH: They actually, in the Youth Olympics, they have it's either a three-on-three or it's like a skill. Because Australia has won a medal in the Olympics in ice hockey. It was part of like a mixed NOC team at like the 2016 Youth Olympics, but we've still got an Olympic medallist in ice hockey somewhere. But yeah, that could work. Just actually, just on a quick little random question, because I don't know if I've ever talked to you about this before, Colin, but what was the, I guess, attention that came from Canada pre-1998 with ice hockey? Because obviously NHL players come in in 1998, but like if you're watching the ice hockey, I mean, you went back to back silvers in 92-94, but like was it still a big deal even though these weren't the best players that you could possibly send back before the NHL players were allowed?
COLIN HILDING: Really, the only one that I watched closely was Lillehammer. I'd seen a little bit of Albertville, but I can say that it took it to a different level in Nagano. It was always a big deal. I mean, if hockey's on in Canada, that's a big deal. But it's not like this was the newsmaker. I mean, Lillehammer, figure skating was still the bigger deal than hockey was. As soon as Nagano came, I mean, that's all anybody talked about. I would say snowboarding actually was almost at the same level in Nagano. Salt Lake City is where it really took off. Because I don't think going into Nagano, we had expectations we were going to medal. I remember thinking like, oh, this is great. I was talking to friends of mine, and I'm like, you know, we're going to be able to win a gold medal because we've got NHL players. And they're like, no, no, no, I don't think Canada is going to win. I'm like, really? But Salt Lake City went to a completely different level. But yeah, Nagano is where it definitely took off and became that main event, at least here in Canada. I don't know if it was in America as well, but definitely here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Here's a fun little thing before we move on from ice hockey for you. Back in 1988, in the ice hockey, the gold, well, they didn't have gold, silver, similar to what I said about curling. It was more of a round robin style format, of course, back then. I think semifinals and quarters were introduced until the Alba Ville, Lillehammer period. The top three at Calgary in 1998, because I was trying to find out when Sweden last won a bronze medal. They last won a bronze medal in 1988 in Calgary. The silver that year went to Finland, and the gold that year went to the Soviet Union. Probably still part of Czechoslovakia, and they were in sixth place with Czechoslovakia. So, there you go, Canada fourth in 1980, and they're home Olympics. And fun fact, Poland were tenth. Jarvis is sitting there going, Ben, where did Poland finish?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, good for the Poles.
BEN WATERWORTH: USA seventh, so bad there. Bad, bad USA. Curling, Sweden a gold medallist. Suck it Britain. I'm sad. I know you're sad for it, but I don't care. Our man Oscar's got the set. He's got his gold. He's got his fourth medal to shimmer with his good looks. Like you thought this man couldn't be any more perfect. He's got an Olympic gold medal around his neck. That man is beautiful. And also congratulations to Nicholas Sadeen. Well, I like that little post. I don't know if it was the Olympic social media or the curling social media today. Show that he got fourth in Vancouver, bronze in Sochi, silver in Pyeongchang and now gold in Beijing. Jarrod, they didn't show this today though. I mean, if they did, I wasn't watching, but why weren't they showing this? And then why were they showing the eighth replay of the four man bobsleigh?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't know why they didn't have this on like to start with. I feel like something else was on at the same time. Maybe like the cross country I think was on at the same time, I want to say. But then it finished. I was like, why are they not cutting over? Like it's a really tense like point in the game. It was going down to like the extra end. I'm like, surely they're going to change over to it. No, I'm sled replays, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's because like the amount of attention we had on curling at the beginning of these Olympics. And now it's like we've just gone back to watch that sport. So it was disappointing. So I actually didn't get to see any of this. But Colin, you're obviously disappointed. You wanted the Brits to win. But Britain's still on track. The Scots. The Scots. Yes, exactly. The Scots. Britain's still on. Scotland's still on track to. Well, Scotland are on the medal, but Britain in general, their first Winter Olympics, it seems, since 2006 without a gold medal. So there you go. Winter Olympics, I should say. Are you somewhat happy that the Swedes got this, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I mean, if it wasn't going to be Great Britain, I'm glad that these finals, it's sort of the other teams that I would have picked outside of Canada. I thought it was incredible last night when it came to realise it was going to be Japan and Scotland. And we had Sweden in Great Britain. And also the fact that you're like, Great Britain has not won a single medal. Wouldn't it be incredible if they got two golds just to rub it in Ben's face? But it still is fantastic. And it went to extra ends, which there's been so many of that in this Olympics. I don't know. I'd have to kind of go back to the last couple of Olympics to see if we had this many extra ends. But it always makes for tight games. And this was definitely live coverage, like non-stop live coverage here, which is great that there's enough interest in curling, even when the Canadians are out of it, that Canada is tuning in. I'm more excited for the women's one tonight. This is kind of the big... I already told Jamie, we're setting up our projector. We're going to watch this on a big screen on the wall for the women's curling because it's on in prime time here. And I'm a huge Eve Meirhead fan. And Jamie's not a fan of curling, as she's told me, but she kind of owes me one, which I won't go into details on. I didn't give her enough. She owes me. For what, Colin?
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you have sex this week? Well done. Colin, I'm having sex with you, Jamie, but you have to watch curling.
COLIN HILDING: Long story short, Jamie had weeks ago arranged a day out, and I had said, you know, that might be OK, but you'll just have to check with me a couple days beforehand to make sure that I got nothing else going on and I can watch the kids. Last night, she all of a sudden came and said, all right, so remember, I'm going out tomorrow. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you were supposed to remind me. Basically, it came down to the fact that she forgot until her mum reminded her that they were supposed to have plans. And then she tried to pin it on me, and then I called her on it. And then she said, OK, I'll take Casper if we'll make it easier on you. I said, OK, watch the curling with me on the big screen. And so now it's a thing. That's our Saturday night. I'm going to be watching Eve Muirhead on a big screen. That's my consolation for having to watch the twins.
BEN WATERWORTH: Reasons why I miss being in a relationship. I can't bribe anyone to watch curling.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. But yeah, it's great. The Great Britain, this is what they're going to be remembered for, is that they were in two gold medal games. And it would be incredible if Japan wins, too. I mean, that's kind of more of a preview for tomorrow. But yes, back to the original point before I got to bribing my wife. If it wasn't going to be Great Britain, great for Sweden. And Oscar Ericsson, what a man, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. Jarrod, I mean, shimmering, right? Just gold goes with gold.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, what a golden man.
BEN WATERWORTH: What a man.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, it's what he deserves, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just him and Bart Swing walk into a room. Like, just, I mean, that's a golden couple right there. Just Esther walks in, you know, and they come. Eileen comes in, you kick her out. Go away, Eileen. Bugger off. Michaela walks in and trips over, falls on her face. We just celebrate and dance. That's how life should be. Just quickly, before we go over what we watched and results and everything, as much as I saw the Jamaican bobsled team today, I have to love the fact that literally one of them has a lucky egg. Like, that just makes me happy. I didn't see that. Did you see this, Colin? I don't know if this was public knowledge until Channel 7 got it out of them, but Channel 7 were doing an interview with them afterwards, and one of them actually has a lucky egg. So it kind of makes me happy.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think this ever came up on the Devin Harris interview from years ago, but I don't remember if that was ever one of the real things. 90% of Cool Runnings was completely fictionalised. I would hope that the egg was real.
BEN WATERWORTH: I vaguely remember maybe asking something. Maybe. I mean, that was, what, like four or five years ago, that interview. Longer maybe. I don't know. It should be, though. But the thing is, did you see it, Jarrod? It's like a multi-coloured Easter egg almost, isn't it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It is. It's very impressive. I'm glad Channel 7 did some digging. They can have some brownie points there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do actually like the social media that they put up today where it's like, who did it better? And it's like a picture of Sanka from Cool Running with his egg next to the current Jamaican bobsledder guy with his egg.
COLIN HILDING: Nobody does it better than Dougie Doug.
BEN WATERWORTH: What a man.
COLIN HILDING: What happened to our interview with him? You're so determined.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want to see a movie made of Oscar Erickson and Dougie Doug playing Oscar Erickson. The resemblance is striking. It's Dougie Doug playing a Swedish man. It's the casting that Hollywood is being dying for, basically.
COLIN HILDING: We know very well that there's going to be a Michaela Schifrin movie, and Eileen Gould will somehow get the part.
BEN WATERWORTH: Meryl Streep. Come on, Colin. Meryl Streep could act the shit out of Michaela Schifrin. God, what can't that woman do? She can fall over and win an Oscar for it. And actually, fun fact, by me just saying that sentence, Meryl Streep just got nominated for an Oscar for it. So congratulations, Meryl, on Oscar number 412. Medal results today. So yes, curling, Sweden gold, Britain silver, and Canada obviously got the bronze in that. We've gone over the speed skating ones, the freestyle skating. I should say that David wasn't very wise because he only got the silver from America. And Alex Ferreira of the US also got the bronze.
COLIN HILDING: Did you see his profile pic? I was going to call you Jamie. Sorry, Jarrod.
BEN WATERWORTH: Call me Jamie.
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, did you see that Alex Ferreira guy, his picture? It's like the single most intentionally crazy picture.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You're not wrong. It was a bad one.
BEN WATERWORTH: I need to find this apparently. But similar to the women's, North America went silver and bronze on the podium.
COLIN HILDING: Well, and let's also remind people, of course, this is never going to make as much news, but David Wise is now in that three-peat club for freestyle skiers with Eileen Goo. So she's now in a club of five.
BEN WATERWORTH: He won the last two gold, did he? In this event, he did, yes.
COLIN HILDING: I think, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So he won two gold. Yeah, no, two gold. So he won the last two hard parts. So yes, Sochi, Pyeongchang, and silver.
COLIN HILDING: This amazing accomplishment of Eileen Goo that a handful of people have done.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, why aren't we? Yeah, exactly. Why don't we talk about David Wise a little bit more? So that's not why.
COLIN HILDING: Let's make him our Daily Dale.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Daily David, David Wise.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, we're going to rename it. That's how much we appreciate him.
BEN WATERWORTH: The other medal event today, the Men's 50 Kilometre Freestyle became the Men's 30 Kilometre Freestyle, because it was a bit like, how is that? Like, that's a bit bullshit. Like, oh, the marathon today will only be 20 kilometres, not 40 because it's raining. Like, I thought these cross-country skiers were men.
COLIN HILDING: It's not them. Before that, I don't know if you had the same. Well, I had the Canadian commentary, so you didn't have the same commentary, because you said they aired this on Channel 7?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I didn't actually see it. So, Jarrod, was it the OBS, or did they get Colbert back in to commentate it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: To be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention.
COLIN HILDING: But they basically... Here they start off by saying that they made the decision to do this, which might have happened due to the many near deaths on the halfpipe yesterday. But they said that most of the skiers were objecting. They're like, no, we want to do the 50. We prepared for the 50. And it's unfortunate because a lot of these guys, they have selected their events because they wanted to be part of this one. And now it's a half event, you know? And it's not exactly what they trained for, which is disappointing. My other objection is that somebody doesn't understand the metric system or their really bad meteorologist.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come now, Colin. It's all right.
COLIN HILDING: I live in Winnipeg, the windy city of Canada. It makes me angry when I'm seeing trees blowing over and snow blowing past people's faces and they're reporting 14 km an hour winds. Like, I'm sorry, 14 km an hour is a light breeze. That was a 40 km an hour wind. And somehow they report this is really dangerous. You do not know the metric system, but that's what you think 14 km is. That was very heavy winds. I credit them for even being able to beat, but also a lot of it's in wooded areas. And, again, living in the windy city of Canada, we can have 80, we have like a nature preserve right behind my office at work. And I'll always go for a walk or go for a jog on my lunch through the trails in that area. And it can be 80 km an hour winds. And I know, okay, it's a five-minute walk, and then the trees are going to block everything. So I don't know why the wind was such a big deal, even at 40 km an hour when these cross-country skiers want to compete, and they're going to have wind coverage a lot of the time.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's the thing that like just baffles me with this the most is that, again, it's not like they just made it like the 45 km or like the foot, like they shaved 20, that's a whole distance in itself. And like, it just seems to me that this is a sport where it's in snow, it's susceptible to weather conditions. It's not like this is a rarity that all the 50 km cross country skiing has got snow in it. So this is rare. We better make basically half the distance. Like, it feels very odd to me that you would shave that much like, oh, it's raining. Let's make the hundred metres, the 40 metres like, and I can't imagine that that doesn't favour certain athletes because, you know, like a half marathon is different to a full marathon. So there would be runners who are better at a 20 K than a 40 K. So, therefore, you're going to have skiers who probably do their best work over a 30, but aren't good in a 50. And then these poor skiers who are great in the 50, who can't build up to their rhythm by the time they get towards the end, being completely, you know, like, it just seems very odd to me that this is what you would do in order to hold it. Like, it's just, yeah, very, very strange.
COLIN HILDING: I'm curious to see what the weather is going to be like tomorrow too, though, because they made the decision to go ahead with a half pipe when they probably shouldn't have. And my thought when that happened was, well, I bet you it's going to be worse tomorrow, and they're running out of time. And it's the same thing with this. Well, we're going to lessen the distance because it's dangerous as opposed to just rescheduling it for the next day. Tomorrow, they're probably forecasting, I don't know, like 19-kilometre-an-hour winds. And roofs are going to be blown off with that. But it's just unusual. Yeah, going from 50 to 30, is this what, because yesterday I was saying, I'm like, oh, I don't even know. Maybe I won't even be able to watch the entire 50 kilometres. It was over in an hour and 12 minutes, I think, or an hour and 15, something like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which, I mean, it's just fascinating. Jarrod, what do you think about it, like, shaving 20 kilometres off a 50 kilometre?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me, and it was disappointing. I feel like this is, like we've said, this is like the marathon equivalent of the Winter Olympics. You look forward to, like, the athletes, like, struggling to, like, push through it and it becomes as much as, like, a mental thing as it's physical. And then to take that amount of distance off, I just, yeah, I don't know why it was that. I just, yeah, it just ruined it for me. And like Colin was saying, like, the athletes weren't happy. Like, they interviewed, like, the Australians afterwards, and they were saying how upset they were that, like, it had been, like, reduced in distance and how they weren't prepared for it. And it just completely, like, changed their mindset going into the event. And then it was just confusing watching as well, because they didn't, like, they changed, like, the title anyway. It was still, like, the men's 50 kilometres mass start. And I switched on to it at, like, I don't know, 25 kilometres or whatever. And they're like, now they've got one lap of the course to go. I'm like, wow, that's an awful long course they've got, 25 kilometre course. They're doing another lap of what's happening. And then it's like, and they kind of ran the final straight. I'm like, what? They actually got 25 kilometres to go. What's happening? So, yeah, just an odd decision. Yeah, the weather must have been forecast to be, like, terrible tomorrow, but I don't know. Just let them do the distance as far as I'm concerned.
BEN WATERWORTH: We should mention the gold went to Alexander Bolshinov of Rock. The silver went to Ivan Yakimyshkin of O'Rock. And this is, we should mention, this is actually Alexander's third gold of the Games and his fifth medal of the Olympics. So he's actually out there now with our Frenchman is getting five, our French biathlete guy of getting five in these Games. So potential for athlete of the Games. Difference is we might have to take it away from him in a couple of years when he gets found with some drugs in his system. Do we do that like in the future? You know, if our Daily Dale is a drug cheat in a couple of years?
COLIN HILDING: I was going to ask if you heard about this, but are you aware, Ben, that you have now interviewed a silver medallist that you thought was a bronze medallist?
BEN WATERWORTH: Do tell. Who's this?
COLIN HILDING: So in Tokyo, the Canadian 4x100 relay team, Andre Degrasse, Aaron Brown, Brendan Rodney, Jerome Blake, it just came out yesterday that Great Britain has now been disqualified on a doping charge. Canada has been upgraded to the silver. Ben, you are just one step away from Italy being banned or being disqualified from interviewing a gold medallist. All you got to hope for is that the Italians are as big on the drugs as Great Britain was. And of course, it was Great Britain that did this to you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's be honest. Our man, the 100-metre guy, we're still shocked at an Italian. If anyone's going to be caught for doping, it's going to be that guy. I'm sorry, but we still don't believe that Italy can win the 100 metres. I had no idea about that. Britain got caught for doping? Jesus. Wow. That explains a lot then.
COLIN HILDING: So congratulations. Post congratulations to Aaron Brown and Brendan Rodney, two interviewees from Off The Podium, who we assisted in giving you a silver medal just due to Ben's hatred of Great Britain. Ben has the power to curse. You know what? Great Britain is going to be caught for doping in another six months.
BEN WATERWORTH: Curling.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and curling. Yeah. And Brad Goosh, you will be upgraded to the silver.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bloody hell. This is great. I mean, you know, I feel bad all those years I wasted on my life bagging out the French. They're nice and clean, the French. Look at them. They just run away. But, you know, they're still clean. Those dirty Brits. Britain and drug in the same sentence doesn't surprise me at all. But anyway, but seriously, props to Alexander, though. This is like something that I feel is not being talked about. Five medals. So, yeah, we might be talking about him soon. Bronze went to Semen Hegstad Kruger of Norway. So they couldn't get to their 16th gold, unfortunately. So pick your game up, Norway. Should be doing better than that. But we've got two more events to be decided. The pairs in the figure skating and the two-woman bobsleigh, we know will be a Germany gold coming there. So probably a Russian gold in the figure skating as well. So a good day for Russia and Germany. The medal tally as it stands is this moment, Norway 15 gold, 8 silver, 12 bronze, 35 in total, Germany 10 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze, 22. USA, USA, 8 gold, 9 silver, 6 bronze, 23. And Joe Biden and his lovely wife, is it Jill? I don't know her name. Good to see that they finally woke up and realised the Olympics are on and posted their lovely little knitted sweater photo on Twitter of Go Team USA in the Olympics. Joe, they're nearly over. I actually think that was his post for Tokyo, funnily enough. Good luck to Simone Biles and the rest of the team.
COLIN HILDING: Congratulations to Simone Biles.
BEN WATERWORTH: Congratulations to Michael Phelps on his 8 gold medals in Beijing. Mark Spitz has done so well in Munich. The Netherlands, 8 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze, 17 in total. No more speed skating events with the Dutch, so they're done. Sweden, 8 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze, 17. And China, 8 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze, 14. Canada, if you win one more gold, Colin, if you can somehow pull a gold out of your arse tomorrow in the alpine skiing or the cross country, I don't know if it's going to happen, but you never know. You will officially move up into 10th place because you have one more silver than France, but you got four gold.
COLIN HILDING: More importantly, in the overall medals, are we third or ahead of US, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, you are.
COLIN HILDING: And I'm pretty sure...
BEN WATERWORTH: I look like Channel 7 is showing the curling. Sorry, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: But I'm pretty sure not in my predictions as far as gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals, but just the overall medals. I predicted 26 for Canada, so we're one away from me nailing Canada as 26 medals for these games, which seemed a little bit high before, but it's going to be bobsled. Bobsled is the one that we have the best shot in right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've got...
COLIN HILDING: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think you're on for it in the four men, because you're sitting in third, I believe.
COLIN HILDING: And maybe even in the two women.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, maybe.
COLIN HILDING: Still in the mix, are we? I didn't watch last season.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're fourth, going into the last run. But you're about seven tenths off the US. So, yeah, we'll get to the...
COLIN HILDING: Well, Kaylee has it coming, OK?
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not Kaylee, though. It's the other US one. Kaylee's pulling a Makayla. Kaylee's in sixth. Come on. Yes. Yeah, suck it, Kaylee. But Canada, four gold, eight silver, 13 bronze, 25. Australia are in 18th, Mr. Twitter Guy. One gold, two silver, one bronze. And can I just say, New Zealand beating Finland on the medal tally. So come on, no pressure, Finland, for the ice hockey tomorrow. Go and grab it. Britain, well done. You're in equal 24th place with Spain and the Ukraine. So that's a song, isn't it? Spain and the Ukraine. More importantly, Belgium are ahead of Great Britain on the medal tally. So congratulations to Belgium.
COLIN HILDING: Jerry, can we get a rating on Spain and the Ukraine, please? Just shut them up, please. Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'd give it a three at least. So Canada and Australia results. We'll go over now in the four man Bob sled after two runs. Canada are in third. Mr. Justin Cripps and he sled a third. Christopher Spring sled is in 11th and Taylor Austin sled is in 21st place. Jamaica is in 28th. And if you want to know where Brazil are, they're in 20th. You're getting beaten by Brazil in Bob sled Canada. So there you go. Pick your game up. In the women, so we've just had the third run of the two woman, the fourth run coming up very, very soon. Canada, Christine De Bruyne sled in fourth. Cynthia appears sled even after crashing is in eighth. Bree's got up one spot to 11th. So Bree and Kiara, can they sneak in the top 10? They're actually one spot behind Canada and only 0.7 of a second off that 10th spot. So Melissa LaTaltz's sled is in 10th place. So it's going to come down to the wire in that one. And Britain in the two woman, Bob sled 19th. Suck it, Britain. In the cross country skiing, Canada's best finisher was Olivier Lavelle, 27th position. Remy Drolet was 35th for Australia. Sebby Ducampo, 51st. Phil Bellingham, 53rd in that. As we said, I don't know why I've got the curling open. Oh, no, the bronze medal game is open right now between Sweden and Switzerland. And after five ends, Sweden three, Switzerland two. That's in the women's, of course. The pairs skating right now, I can tell you that Eric Radford and Vanessa James have gone, and they're sitting in eighth place at the moment. They are behind the other Canadian pair of Michael Maranaro. That's my favourite type of pasta sauce. And Kirsten Moore Towers in sixth. That was a four, Jarrod. Come on, that was at least a four. Yeah, slow.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like that was a better joke with Kirsten Moore Towers there, but I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Moore, Moore Towers.
COLIN HILDING: I need to comment on the pairs here. Please do, Colin. This is something that's not being talked about. All the talk about, oh, look what's happened in hockey, or the men's hockey, look at what's happened in curling. I did a little bit of digging. And unless I'm wrong, Canada has not ever not meddled in figure skating since Lake Placid in 1980. We have meddled in every Olympics for figure skating since then. And in the last three, four Olympics, there's been significant meddling. And I think this kind of goes back to, I heard a little bit on TV them saying the same thing that I was saying when the team event was going on. We have a lot of change over. A lot of our more experienced skaters are gone now. We have a lot of new people in. You have some of the experience, like Eric Radford and Vanessa James, who were both in their fourth Olympics, but they've only been paired up for eight, nine months. I don't know. Maybe this is going to be talked about more at the end of the Olympics, but to me, this is the more shocking thing, that for the first time in 42 years, Canada is potentially... We're really hoping that Camilla cost those Russians their spot in the team event because 42 years without a medal or without not winning a medal in figure skating. That's crazy that that's not being talked about more here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I can tell you that Australia has gone 98 years without winning a medal in figure skating. Actually, it's longer than that because figure skating was in like 1908 in the Summer Olympics, wasn't it? So we've gone like 114 years without winning one. So we're hoping our drought is coming soon. I believe there's a national inquiry coming into the performance of our figure skaters in these Olympics. It's just been rubbish, hasn't it, Jarrod? We expected better, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It has been. We're going to have to get an expert in breaking medal droughts. So Bart Swing is the new Australian figure skating coach.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, New Zealand, basically. Nico Porte is coming in to do it. But that's actually really interesting, Colin, because it's weird that as a non-Canadian, I see you guys winning lots of medals in figure skating, but it's never really a sport that I automatically assume Canada. Figure skating, to I think many outside of the countries that win it, is like, oh, it's a Russian sport, it's an American sport. Yeah, Japanese. Yeah, Japanese. But you're right, Canada generally always win medals in it, so it's kind of interesting. You've got to remember Britain used to win gold medals in fucking figure skating.
COLIN HILDING: And when I was doing our celebratory athletes for Canada, my initial thought was, I want to include as many sports as possible, but when it came to speed skating and figure skating, that's where I struggled the most. I'm like, well, how do I not include Tessence Scott? How do I not include Brian Orser? It didn't even occur to me how many legends of figure skating we had in Canada until I had to sit down and do it. Yet it is a major sport here. It gets a lot of coverage. I think it's just because maybe because there's so many events, it gets lost in the shuffle. It's not like there's as much focus on the pairs as there is because if we don't medal in pairs, we're probably meddling in ice dancing. If we don't medal in the men's, we're probably meddling in the women's. But somehow it seems to have gone unnoticed. We're not meddling in anything this time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm really quickly scrolling through each of the Olympics here. It's a fun thing to do. And I'm seeing he didn't medal in 1980, didn't medal in 1968, 52, 36. And it looks here, 1928 either, 1924. So anyway, there's been a few. I thought maybe there was only going to be the one. But interesting, fascinating, fascinating stuff here that I'm learning. Even Jarrod's going, yeah, yeah, this is fascinating.
COLIN HILDING: Take those medals from those druggy Russians. We want our default bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: And we want Eric Radford to get a bronze for Off The Podium. So, you know, selfish, selfish Off The Podium. In the shitpipe, Noah Bowman was fourth for Canada. Brendan McKay was ninth for Canada. And Simon Datois was tenth. So, suck it, other New Zealander in the final. In the mass start for the men's... Oh, man. Jordan Beltrois, 13th. Antoine Gellius was 15th. And so both your skaters went through. There was the Kiwi skater guy, Peter Michael, didn't make it through to the final, so suck it, New Zealand. Oh, women's. Valerie Mautet was 6th in the women's. And both of your skaters made it through to the final. So there you go. Argentinian speed skater. There you go. We need more Argentinian. Maria Victoria Rodriguez Lopez. Don't save any names for anyone else there, love. But she got dead last in her semifinal. So come on, National Inquiry.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Haley Dale.
BEN WATERWORTH: National Inquiry to Argentinian Speed Skating should be done there. What did we watch today, boys? Boys? Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like I caught a bit of everything. A little bit of the bobsleigh. The last lap of the cross-country skiing. The men's prestigious 25 kilometres or whatever it was. The curling. Sorry, I'm in Oscar Take The Gold. A little bit of the pairs figure skating. The half pipe, obviously, which is more like the quarter pipe after that big chunk was taken out by the guy crashing. And then the mass start, men's and women's in the speed skating.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin. He cannot hear you.
COLIN HILDING: Yes, why not?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hello, there you are. I don't know. Tell you computer that now. Try that again.
COLIN HILDING: Pretty much everything that Jarrod mentioned. I saw more of the cross country because it was not hard to watch it in its entirety. I will say it's great. It's great scenery. It's very calming. Fall asleep. I was trying to watch the falling asleep to the the mass start speed skating. And it's a little bit too fast, a little bit too intense. And so once I was able to switch over and watch the cross country, it was easier to fall asleep. And now I'm watching the twirling around again in the woman's speed skating, the wipe out there. I completely see what you mean. The only thing I didn't see was bobsled. So I'm excited to catch the final run of that. I saw the highlights of Justin Cripps and Christopher Spring, and that was pretty much it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I didn't watch a lot today. I kind of woke up and I had a long sleep in today because I was lazy. But I saw the bobsleigh, the bobsleigh, the bobsleigh. I saw Tessa Cody getting interviewed and having an awkward exchange with a Richmond football player. It's like, you're a big fan of Richmond, aren't you, Tess? Yeah, well, we've gotten blah, blah, blah, triple pro machine player.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, bro.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then it was just like, oh, you play for Richmond.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, you won a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ha, ha, ha. Anyway, moving on. So, Tess, did you see that, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: A couple of groms, if ever I saw one.
BEN WATERWORTH: It was so awkward. They'd be like, Colin, if they get like a Canadian on set, like, oh, you're a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He's never want to stay on the cup player. How are you going?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah, I'm a fan.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm a fan. Cool. All right, moving on. It was just really weird. I saw, I'm watching the figure skating right now. And I watched the Mass Start. That was probably the longest event that I was able to watch today. Fails. Jarrod, what besides the Richmond Test awkwardness?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, we had that and we've already spoken about. The other one I had was the Mel and Nico interview. It's just cringe. But that's that's about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's about it. I mean, from what I saw, I actually really like that that wall thing that they did. And I gave my thoughts on Mel before. But again, still perfect. Channel seven. So good. But although I have to say, qualities dipped a lot in the research department in the last 24 hours. Don't know if the stats and the facts were as quite as good as they were for the other 14 days. So not too sure about that. I'm about to go to Colin here in a second. I don't know if he's going to have Casper turn around and say some fails because he's just taken his hoodie or something like that as he's walked off.
COLIN HILDING: Colin, he grabbed one of the twins jackets that he's going to try to cram himself into. I don't really have any comment here, but I'm excited to hopefully record something for you when I do get to watch the bobsled, because what brief bit I did see yesterday, we had another, the same guy who had a wow. This guy's very animated just in short bursts. So if we get any more wild animal cries from this man, I will make sure to record it for tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we just get him on the show and just like do impersonations of animals, basically, really along those lines. Athlete celebration. I'm just intrigued here watching what Casper is actually doing. Is he wearing a Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leaf top?
COLIN HILDING: No, it's Toronto Maple Leaf jammies. Those are some of his favourites. It kind of looks like a ball there. Yeah, it's one of those giant bouncing exercise balls. Take it upstairs, Casper.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go bounce mummy with it, Casper. Who's the Canadian athlete celebratory athlete today?
COLIN HILDING: You tell me. I've lost track of my days.
BEN WATERWORTH: Team Jennifer Jones. Oh, he's choking. Hang on. Sorry, Colin. He gets excited when he talks about Team Jennifer Jones.
COLIN HILDING: How could I not? These are my hometown heroes. And it's not just because of my hometown heroes they're picked here. These are the team that is probably most closely associated with curling in Canada over my lifetime. So as we interviewed one of them on the show, this is another one of our celebratory athletes that we've had the privilege of interviewing on here. At least one of them, Jill Officer, who is the only one who's not back in these games, which again, we're going to claim, you would have won gold again, you would have been undefeated again if Jill was there. So come back, Jill, please, we need you. But anyways, they were the ones who went undefeated in the Sochi Olympics, won gold, sadly did not make the Pyeongchang Games, and poor Rachel Holman has never been forgiven since. And we lived through all the drama of them, even now we can add to these games with them sitting on the sidelines, as I said, one of the most dramatic things ever in Winter Olympics in Canada, watching the other games, just nothing going right for their way. But Jennifer Jones especially is one of the legends of winter sports in Canada. And just for them being in my hometown, I can say like it is, they are enormous here. We have already covered, without even realising it, Clara Hughes and Cindy Clausen, two other Winnipeggers, who are arguably the biggest stars in speed skating history and two of the most accomplished winter athletes of all time. And yet Jennifer Jones and her crew dwarfed them for popularity here in Winnipeg. One of the best stories I've heard about athletes coming home after winning the Olympics and just what the sensation was like, is listen to the Jill Officer interview about the amount of people that came out to greet them at the airport after Sochi in minus 40 degree temperature at 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning here in Winnipeg. It was insane. I'll never forget just how big of a deal it was after they won the Olympics in Sochi. And they will win again. They're coming back.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm telling you. As the politically correct host on the show, I'd just like to formally apologise for two comments Colin just said. They're not that fat. Don't call them enormous. Please don't fat shame our celebratory guests. And also little people, not dwarfs anymore, Colin. That's very insensitive of you to say that. So just...
COLIN HILDING: What did I say? Oh, OK, dwarf. Yes, I get it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, Jarrod, what was that joke like? Oh, no, Jarrod's scale.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I ate my, like, scraper before. Like, so the quality is going up.
BEN WATERWORTH: That wasn't bad. I'll take it. That's pretty decent. Breaking news in the curling. It is still 3-2 Sweden leading. Well, they're probably leaving. I don't know, Switzerland. Breaking news in the men's bronze medal ice hockey match. It is nil all. Although I can say that Slovakia, when Sweden went on the power play, the four minute mark because that dirty goaltender, Patrick Rybar, tripped someone. Good on him. Good on him. That's the Slovakian way. The goalies are tripping people. Get out. Get on the floor. The Australian athlete celebratory won today. Diane Ogle, our very first ever loser. She competed in Alba Ville in 1992. She finished 21st, which was the best ever finished by an Australian in luge until Mr. Felazo did that a little bit better this time around in Beijing. She, of course, yeah, the first athlete to compete in luge pretty decent effort there to do that, as we've talked about these sliding sports on exactly a huge pathway for those. And I'm going to honestly say, I think of the three, luge the most impressive for an Australian to do, because like bobsleigh, sprinter, like get a sprinter, they're fast, put them in a sled. Skeleton, similar thing. You sprint like luge, the lazy sport of the sliders because you're sitting down. But the fastest of the sliding sports. So clearly, there's something in there to being a bit lazy by sitting down and start just using your arms. So good on you, Diane, for doing that. I'm ogling at your achievements.
COLIN HILDING: Now that's a six. I knew that joke was coming. No, no, no, that's still you're still below five.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, this isn't the Colin Hilding joke scale. This is the Jarrod Lubeck joke scale. What do you say, Jarrod? Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: 4.75. 5.75.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, that's...
COLIN HILDING: You literally confirm my point. I have a question, and I'll get to in a second, but I just want to say one of the interesting things is one of Justin Crips. I think it was Justin Crips or Christopher Springs, one of the Canadian bobsledders. They have a CFL player in their sled. This is a professional football player who has decided in his off season, he wants to become a bobsledder, which is incredible. But that's just a side note. One of my questions I had, because with your athletes, you've said, there's Bart's swings on my TV right now. What a man. And what a great colour yellow is on him. It really compliments his eyes. It really does. Anyways, how many of these athletes were you aware of going in? Because I think you did a similar thing that I did. You wanted to pick as many sports as possible. And I can say, there's at least two of the Canadian athletes that I had to Google so I could find what's our best ever in this sport. The other ones I at least have probably heard of. But I would imagine maybe some of this might be harder to find or maybe maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, you know, being the greatest loser of all time is still a massive deal in Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I would firmly say that Jarrod would back me up on this. I don't think anyone in Australia would know who the fuck Diane Ogle is. So, look, I kind of I did two things with it. I straight away, I wanted to balance it, but I never did it on a sports base thing. It was more of a I wanted equal gender. I wanted 50% women, 50% men. That was the first thing I did. Then I was like, OK, we don't really have many gold medallists, so I can easily have five or five having a day. Dale Begspith was always getting the day no matter what. I knew the 20th anniversary of Light Braby, so those were the easy ones. But then I kind of did it. I looked at sort of like anniversaries, like certain days and things like that. But then I wanted to just kind of do certain aspects where it was like, OK, Nordic combined starts today, so let's celebrate our one Nordic combined athlete. I wanted to put a bit of a homage to ice hockey. So we've obviously had one ice hockey player who was our first ever flag bearer. And spoiler alert, our last athlete tomorrow will be an ice hockey player. And then the rest of it kind of just, you know, you'd have to have someone like Colin Coates. He's been to six Olympics at our best ever finished before. We won a medal.
COLIN HILDING: And is he somebody that everybody's aware of?
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, I think Colin Coates is someone that, I mean, people who know their Olympics would know who Colin Coates is. I mean, I would say... Well, I mean, I think, I don't know, Jarrod, if you knew who Colin Coates was before that, but like, I feel he's somebody who some people would have heard of.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'd heard of Colin Coates.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, because I think he's been involved in other things as well. But like, I mean, he's, you know, six time, our only Winter Olympian has been to six Olympics. But the other one sort of was like our first ever Winter Olympian, who was Ken Kennedy, and then our first ever female Winter Olympians, Nancy and Gwen. And the other ones then kind of were just like, the skeleton was starting that day. So Emma, let's, you know, do it. And that worked out well with Jackie, obviously winning the medal. Stephen Lee, somebody who's a bit of an icon in Australian winter sports, is obviously having some troubles right now, and people are kind of getting behind him. So does that answer your question? It was kind of like, I don't, I think the majority of ours, people have heard, like everyone knows who Bradbury is, everyone knows who Toro Bryde is, everyone knows who Lydia Lasseter is. You know, most people know who Alyssa Campelan is, most people know who's Ali Steggelt is, most people know who Dale Weik Smith are. You know, but like, and then it was kind of the other one. So yeah, anyway, long-winded answer to a simple question.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yes.
COLIN HILDING: Yes, yes, yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: The answer that Colin gives, yes. Jarrod, who did you choose? Did we have the Jarrod Lubig athlete celebratory person of the day?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Or was it the Argentinian speech get, obviously, you would have had the Slovakian athlete of the day, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Like he's Sven Bledekol.
JARROD LOOBEEK: What's his face for tripping over the other players? Patrick, Patrick Rybar. What a legend.
BEN WATERWORTH: Infamous Slovakian famous, you know, tripper, basically.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Make a documentary about it, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Daily Dale. I've only got two potentials, so I'm open. I'm not sold on either of mine. I'll just say it right now. Honestly, I've put the Jamaican bobsled team up because of the lucky egg. That's fucking brilliant. And I know we've had, like, I think two speed skaters already, haven't we? But Bart Swings. What a man. Breaking the drought and for Belgium, it's pretty awesome. And the fact is, they was Bart fucking Swings. So I think, you know, we've lost track of this. Hey, let's give every sport a shining moment. But anyway, they're my two. So Jarrod, do you have any potential different ones there?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, not really. I had considered like Arun Chutin and Alexander in like the in the cross country because they both got three gold medals. But I just think breaking that 74 year drought for gold is more impressive, especially like Belgium. Like it just seems like a country you think would have won a couple more golds in the Winter Olympics. So yeah, that's that's where I'm thinking.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, Colin, any anything different?
COLIN HILDING: Well, we're all agreement in at least one person because I had Bart Swains as well. My only other one, I was thinking about cross country as well, because I know that we've given it to a biathlete, but have we given one to just straight cross country yet?
BEN WATERWORTH: The Irish guy that you're angry about.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, that's right. I wasn't on that day. On that note, before I get to this, I'll just give my only other choice that I had, was the guy I still can't remember the name of, the other New Zealander who had the most epic wipeout I've ever seen.
BEN WATERWORTH: That was yesterday.
COLIN HILDING: He lost his head. Ben Harrington.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yesterday, Colin. That was yesterday.
COLIN HILDING: What do you mean yesterday? It was literally on the beginning of today.
BEN WATERWORTH: But it was in the qualifying. He didn't qualify for the final.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, OK. I get what you're saying now. Yes. Nobody. It again only made TV here. But yeah, that was my only choice. So I think it's going to be obviously Bart's wings. But before you get to that, I just want to say yesterday on the show, I was making a big deal about the fact that Scott Gow and Christian Gow, two brothers, were for several kilometres briefly leading in the biathlon. And Ben, very much, you know, oh, a couple of kilometres, big deal. And I'm like, it is a big deal. I mean, the Irish guy's big deal. They're big deal. A couple of kilometres. I just want to read something here. Scott Gow posted on Instagram, pretty special to lead a race with my brother at the Olympics. It only lasted a couple of kilometres, but it's a fun moment I'll never forget. It was another challenging day filled with opportunity. I started off really well, but faltered in one of my prone shootings and watched the field slip away. Big congratulations to Christian Gow, blah, blah, blah. Liked by Off The Podium pod. I want you to take back your criticism for Scott and Christian leading for as long as they did.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love how you get so snarky over little things. Like a brief two-second criticism isn't like a 20-minute rant. Let's go back to the episode.
COLIN HILDING: It was more than a brief two seconds.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sometimes I just like to do things to shit you off. But yeah, I like that.
COLIN HILDING: This is our good friend Scott Gow. Let's give him credit. Yeah, that's why I liked it.
BEN WATERWORTH: So what are you talking about? I actually sent Scott a message.
COLIN HILDING: Well, let's listen to the episode and see what your thoughts were.
BEN WATERWORTH: I sent Scott a message during the week congratulating him, and he wrote back and he said thanks. So, you know, this is Scott.
COLIN HILDING: I want you to send a message congratulating for him and Christian Gow leading for several kilometres.
BEN WATERWORTH: If we want to talk about our former guests, like if we ranked our former guests based on who likes the most of our posts, he's up there as one of the most. He likes a lot of what we post. What a man.
COLIN HILDING: What a man! And I also want to comment on the biathlon. And I'm wondering if it's going to be similar, because I'm kind of disappointed when you said that curling was not getting the coverage. Because I like when a new sport can kind of make something interesting again in Canada. The ski jumping medal for Canada made ski jumping a big deal for the rest of these Olympics. And very, very choked up with this. And the biathlon success we've had, even though it hasn't resulted in a medal, has resulted in a lot of coverage for biathlon and even cross-country that we really haven't seen in close to 15, 20 years in the Olympics here. So I'm glad that some of this smaller success is leading to more success just in attention on the sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't. Because I don't know, Jarrod, if you've noticed, but all they do generally with the curling is literally like they put the megawall up and they're like, curling's on right now. You loved watching Dean and Tarly, so you can watch it on the 7 app. Let's literally say that every time. The only thing that, I mean, when I was working in studio with Jo, there was a couple of the days where I would be providing her the score so that when she would come back from the break, she would literally be like, oh, and if you switch to the curling right now, Canada are leading blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. That was it. But yeah, it surprised me because, like, again, we went curling crazy in this country, and then they've, I don't think, shown anything of the teams. I think, Jarrod, have you seen any of them, like, this liveness, besides a brief little update like they did like a few seconds ago?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No. And I hope I'm wrong, but I just feel that... I just worry that they're not going to get this big push in the sport that they think they're going to get. I think the interest is there, but I think, I don't know, it feels like it's already like waning because they're not showing it. And I'm just concerned they're not going to get a dedicated rank. But I hope I'm wrong. But I just had that feeling.
COLIN HILDING: And look at, we talked about this briefly yesterday. Look at what the success in curling for Korea and Japan did in Pyeongchang. And now we're here, you know, four years later, and Japan's going for a gold medal, and Korea is still in it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think at the end of the day with winter sports in Australia, there is a bit of a weird attention span, because I think that, yeah, it's got some attention, yeah, it will move forward, but when we won the bronze in 1994, it didn't really exactly set off a massive wave of speed skaters, did it? And you look at where we're at right now with short track. We had one guy in it this time around, and they're struggling to get short track speed skaters, and it's 20 years removed from Stephen Winnie, and even after Bradbury won the gold, we didn't really have a massive inflex of that. I mean, the only consistent sport we generally seem to have is aerial skiing, and that's only with the females. Like even after Dave Morris, the men in the aerials just don't happen in Australia. And then snowboard, yeah, it's kind of there. It's kind of just where we're at with winter sports. So it's kind of that weird thing where the attention goes there. Yeah, it gets a bit of here and there, but it doesn't, you know, like we're getting these great facilities now, obviously, which is helping. But it's still not something that I feel, you know, goes there. I mean, look at Zali. Like, I mean, we've not even had somebody remotely close in our pine skiing since Zali Stegel won that bronze medal. So yeah, it's interesting. I don't understand how that happens with Australian sport because, you know, we love it and we're so pumped about it. But yeah, I'm kind of with Jarrah. I don't like as much as I want to think that this will change the sport. And I'm sure, I mean, as I said, when I went to that Come and Try Curling Night, they said this is the most they've ever had at a Come and Try Curling Night. So yeah, there's a bit of influx into it there. But I don't know. I don't think we're going to all of a sudden be having a man's, woman's and a mixed team come Milan.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Well, I think also it changes when it's a specialty sport. Like, for example, swimming is something every Canadian can do. Soccer is something that every Canadian does do. It's just we don't have the success. And what happened from Rio to Tokyo was you had so much of a new interest in people who already were swimming just for fun, recreation, and already were playing soccer just for fun, for recreation, saying like, oh, this could actually be a career. This is something I can win an Olympic medal with. So we had such a huge influx of new athletes taking the sport seriously. But when you take something like ski jumping, like the interview that I said they had of Ali and Mackenzie after the ski jumping event here, they asked, you know, do you think that this is finally going to bring attention to ski jumping and that this is something Canada can be competitive in? And I think it was Mackenzie who said, I'll be completely honest with you, until we actually have the facilities in Canada, you're still going to have the four of us and maybe a couple other people with the money who are willing to pay their own way. And that's why Vancouver getting the Olympics in 2030 would be so important, because it's probably the only hope we have for ski jumping in Canada. Whereas if we have cross-country skiing success right now, that's part of our gym class in Canada, you know? It's only going to take people taking an interest in saying I could do this competitively, but it's not going to be as easy if you don't have facilities.
BEN WATERWORTH: Will you just wait until the gym classes in Australia start offering skeleton now after Jackie Silver? Like it's just going to take off. Like, all right, guys, it's Tuesday morning, get your skeleton sleds and go down the highway. Just fucking gun it. Basically, all the way. Just quickly, do we actually confirm that Bart Swings is our Daily Dale? Yes, we've locked Bart in.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, it's the only one all three of us had.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, OK, well, that's good to know. Breaking news in The Curling, women's bronze medal game after six ends, Switzerland, two, Sweden, six. Oh, come on, Sweden. They just got three in that last end. So doing very well. Breaking news in the pairs figure skating with only two pairs to go. We've got Russia in first, Russia in second, China in third. The two pairs to go are Russia and China. So I can firmly say that Russia will at least win two medals. And China, well, Russia are one, two, three right now, as I'm saying, because the third pair is just gone. So unless Han Kong and Su Wenjing crash and die, I'm assuming we're going to have two Russians and a Chinese pair winning medals in that one.
COLIN HILDING: And no medal ceremony.
BEN WATERWORTH: No medal ceremony until 2030 in Vancouver. And breaking news in the Men's Ice Hockey Bronze Medal. At the end of the first period, it's nothing, nothing. So doing well. And the bobsleigh, the two-woman is underway. I'm watching rock go down and they're beating France. So as they like to do that. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow. Five medals actually happening. I meant to be four. We didn't mention the Alpine skiing mix team did get bumped until tomorrow, which is a bit disappointing.
COLIN HILDING: Colin, did you see the video of the course?
BEN WATERWORTH: I didn't.
COLIN HILDING: Like this is why I say it, 14 km an hour wins. I mean, it looked like a blizzard. We've got a blizzard forecasted for Winnipeg today, and I guarantee it's not going to be as bad outside as it was on that Alpine course. Like it looked brutal. This is where the real athletes, the men and the women, you know, they cancel that event, you know it's bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, you know, what makes it interesting is if it's worse tomorrow, they can't exactly postpone it till after the closing. Like they just have to do it tomorrow, right? Like it's like, suck it up.
COLIN HILDING: But that's happened before. I'm trying to remember, at some point post Vancouver, I know that there was an Olympics, and it might have been in summer or winter, I can't specifically remember when, where something was delayed for after the closing ceremonies.
BEN WATERWORTH: Really? Oh.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I can't remember what event it was though.
BEN WATERWORTH: The men's marathon was run in 2012. That was actually the Athens marathon. It was run at the same time as the one in London.
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, are we up to a five yet? There's not even a smile on that one.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The metre didn't move.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's not...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just shorten the course, right? Shorten the course for the alpine skiing, just send them down the half pipe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do it in door, like just... The speed skating venue's not being used tomorrow. Like, just build that man-made snow, just build a quick little mountain on the ice, make it more challenging. Esther could do it! She's not in the team event, but I'm sure she could try it. So the mixed team will be on tomorrow. The four-man bobsleigh medals will be decided. The women's 30-kilometre freestyle probably will be the women's like 1.5-kilometre freestyle. The women's curling gold medal match, and of course the men's ice hockey gold medal match will be the last one to go on. So just looking at the schedule tomorrow, so I was thinking maybe would curling get some coverage on 7 tomorrow, but that kicks off at 12.05 Australian time, five minutes after Channel 7 goes on air. But the parallel finals start at midday, so I'm assuming we're going to get the alpine skiing. Then we'll probably get the four-man bobsleigh because that basically starts at 12.30. Then we'll probably get the cross-country because we'll have Casey and Jess in that, so for an Australian perspective. So I don't think curling is going to get any attention tomorrow. And then they usually do show the men's ice hockey final, which is on at 3.10 for us tomorrow afternoon. So yeah, in terms of Australia tomorrow, we'll have Casey and Jess, and obviously Off The Podium, our only athlete in contention. We've had athletes every single day. That is a record. We've never had that before, so that's pretty exciting. Sneaky gold for Casey in 1-2 tomorrow, Jarrod. Like everyone in the cross-country falls over, and we brad breed in the cross-country.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know it. We'd love a sneaky gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Imagine that back ahead of New Zealand.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, suck it, New Zealand. Gold is the first second gold medal off the podium. Casey Wright skates across the line, does it perfectly. Colin, I guess so. I mean, possible medal in the four-man bobsleigh, but I guess kind of, I mean, any hope in the Alpine skiing, do you think?
COLIN HILDING: I'm hearing nothing about it, so I'm going to guess no. Although I will say, I feel like CBC is trying to not get people's expectations up, because I would have come into today saying, probably no hope for Canada to get a medal, and obviously that was wrong. So you never know, maybe there's a surprise that's being kept under wraps. Really crossed my fingers, though, for the bobsleigh, because the two men, Justin Cripps, really struggled there. And this was one of our big stars, one of our headlining marquee events that has been promoted going into these games, was Justin Cripps and the bobsled. And it's right at the end, so it'll be incredible. And he will help me get to my 26. I want a 26, he's going to get me to my 26.
BEN WATERWORTH: I honestly can't even remember what I put in. I haven't looked at it since I did it. I know I've technically got Australia, right, because I said four. But just different colours. Meanwhile, breaking news in the bobsleigh, Bree and Chiara are going down the course right now. So they're pushing, they're pushing, they're pushing, they're pushing, they're pushing, and they're in the sled, which is a good start. And when I say good start, they're.08 underneath the Russians. Come on Australia, beat the Russians. See how they go. But I can tell you that Canada tomorrow, in the Alpine, your first round matchup is against Slovenia. Woohoo, traditional rivals in Alpine skiing. So we have France against the Czech Republic, and no, unfortunately, yes, they're not taking part in that. Norway and Poland, Italy versus ROC, USA against Slovakia. Well, there you go, Jarrod, get on board. Germany versus Sweden and Switzerland versus the People's Republic of China. Is Michaela Schiffrin taking part tomorrow? I don't think she is. So that would lose it for the USA. Oh, Australia dropped behind the Russians.
COLIN HILDING: Would it really matter if she was?
BEN WATERWORTH: Not at all. This isn't come on. Come on, Bray, you can beat the Russians. You don't need drugs to beat them. 0.44 under at the moment. There's our bored looking official. I love these officials at the bobsleigh. They just have their backs to the bobsleys and the loos and the skeletons. She crosses the line and 0.53 behind Russia. That's not great. Anyway, we got beaten by some drug cheats. Well done. Yeah, but tomorrow, our last day. And actually, because it will also be our closing ceremony review, of course, tomorrow. Jarrod will not be with us tomorrow night because he is dying. Obviously, the closing ceremony will be finished very well past Jarrod's bedtime because he has a real job to go to the next day. So I'll just get a quick little thought process from both of you as well in terms of our hopes for the closing ceremony. I mean, it's just a pointless question we always ask on this show. Jarrod, what do you hope from the closing ceremony?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know, not much. I'm hoping we don't get a cliche song, but it will happen. A cliche English song that we're going to get at some point. Lesk's Children and Children's Choirs would be great. I feel like the handover will be good. That's something that's been consistently, I feel like, good for the last couple of Olympics. The handover is good. So looking forward to that. But apart from that, just hoping that it runs smoothly. Maybe they can surprise us with something fun. Just get everybody in there drumming again, please.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we had Mario in the Tokyo handover, right? It's Italian, so Mario might make a return. I don't think Silvio Bascone, I wonder if his name is the president of Italy still. I don't think he's been president for like 10 years. I don't know if the Italian prime minister or president is. So I expect to see them dress as Mario, eating some pasta, driving a Ferrari. But it's Milan, Cortina, Milan's fashion, right? Are we going to have, you know, Giselle back from Rio in another walk? I know she's not Italian, but you know, maybe we could have some Italian soccer players diving. That would be that would be fun. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I'm with you. I'm always a fan of the handover ceremony, and I don't remember Turin's handover. I remember their opening ceremony. That was a good opening ceremony. Turin had a great closing ceremony. They had Ricky Martin in their closing ceremony back in Turin. Who doesn't love that? But I remember their opening ceremony having a Ferrari Formula One car, and that was great. And was that Pavarotti too, wasn't he? And the speed skaters, the flames coming out of their backs. So, yeah, I'm on board for the Italians. Bring on the handover ceremony. Colin, I'll let you choke first. You will obviously be with me talking about the closing ceremony tomorrow night, but any thoughts? Thoughts, exactly thoughts and also I'll actually get flag bearer predictions. I don't think they've been announced yet for both of us. So what are you thinking?
COLIN HILDING: It's other than the people who are constantly saying, oh, it should be Charles Hamlin and Marie-Philippe Poulin and being reminded, no, no, no, they're already the opening one. You can't be both. It's pretty much unanimous Max Perot, like flat out unanimous. A couple of people have thrown Brad Gushu's name in there for the curling. But Max Perot is about the most unanimous selection, at least from the public, that I've ever seen. And on the women's side, because I think we will have two, I think it's going to be Sarah Nurse. There's a lot of people who want Isabel Wiedemann out there. I think the only problem with that is that the accomplishment for her would have been the three medals. She's not even the only one who's won three medals now. I think Stephen DuBois won three here as well. But I think it's going to be Sarah Nurse. I'm about as confident as I've been since I predicted Brit Cox and Andy Notti for gold and silver in Pyeongchang that we are going to get Sarah Nurse and Max Perot as our flag bearers. Jarrad, very confident too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Very much so. The problem with Australia, Jarrod, is basically no one's there anymore. Tess is home, Scott's back in New York, Jakara is home, and Jackie's home. So none of our medallists are there anymore. I think Brit's gone as well, so you can't even give that to her. Well, he's gone, I think too. Realistically, I honestly think it could be Brie just because she got fifth. So, you know, she will. Greta's still around, of course, because Greta's there cheering in her third Olympics. I mean, I think Sammy's still there. I think they're the only ones who are still there. I guess Casey and Jess will be there, a cross-country. I mean, they'll be cool. Phil Bellingham, it's his third Olympics, so give him the honour of that. I know, but I think realistically, it would probably be Brie just based on the performances of who's left there. And I don't know if we'll have the two. If we do have the two, I say Brie and Phil based on, you know, Phil's third Olympics. But any other outside the box thoughts? Alyssa Campland again, have we said this the other day?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, that was my thinking as well. I feel like it's got Bob's led Brie who's, you know, she's here. There she is running the two-woman Bob by herself. She doesn't have anyone else in there. We wouldn't know about that. And then I'm with you. I feel like it's going to be a little bit similar to the opening when they're like, oh, dual fly-bearers. We've got to pick a man who's available and on the table here. So I think that it might be Phil because they were talking up him being at his third Olympics during the coverage today. So maybe they've got an inside line there, and that's the way they're going to go.
COLIN HILDING: I have a question because you don't need to pick male and female. You could have whoever's... Who's Bree's second? Do we even know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay.
COLIN HILDING: So you could have them because it was before this whole dual flag bearer thing came in. I think it was it was Vancouver Sochi, one of them. It was Kayleigh Humphreys and Heather Moyes, who was her number two in the two-woman bobsled, who were named as our dual flag bearers. So, I mean, why couldn't you just have both of them?
BEN WATERWORTH: Maybe. Well, if Bree gets chosen, we've never had a bobsledder, be a flag bearer in the opening or the closing ceremony before, and we've never had a cross-country ski up here in opening ceremony in the... Sorry, a flag bearer in either the opening ceremony or the closing ceremony. So it would create history either way. I'm looking at the majority of our flag bearers, snowboarders, freestyle skiers, speed skaters, short track speed skaters, or alpine skiers, and ice hockey players. So, you know, go us. But obviously, our first figure skater was Brendan, so there you go. But it would be pretty cool if Bree got it, like dual Off The Podium flag bearers. There you go. We'll get more flag bearers and gold medallists on this show. It's great. Come on the show. If you want to be a flag bearer, you've got a pretty good track record. So you'll never go home with a medal.
COLIN HILDING: You'll carry the flag.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ali and Abby for flag bearers for Canada come 2016.
COLIN HILDING: 2016, yes, come 2016.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're going back in time to the Olympics. 2026 is yes, thank you for that Colin. I appreciate you being the researcher on this show. Yeah, bring on tomorrow. I'm sad. It's our last one. We'll obviously do a proper full wrap on Monday and go over everything. But yeah, I'm sad. And come on, Finland. Come on, team Finland. Bring home the gold. That's what I want to say. Go to head of New Zealand on the medal tally, Finland. Think about what it will do for your country. Yes, we are very excited that we beat New Zealand in the Olympic Games. It's a very happy day. Come on, do it for Helsinki. Do it for Lordy. It's going to sing hard rock. Hallelujah. Right, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Still the best Eurovision song of all time. Up there. Anyway, Jarrod, thank you very much for joining us. I know you're desperate to go watch your boys in the bronze. Still nil all in that one. So do you think we're heading for a penalty shoot out there?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, I hope so. We've got a good record there. So, yeah, fingers crossed. I mean, I'd love for them to finish it off early, but I'll take a shoot out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speaking of finishing off early, Colin's got his breakfast from his wife wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt. What's the story there, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: She loves the Green Bay Packers because, well, let's be honest, she loves it because of Aaron Rodgers.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was about to say, is it an Aaron Rodgers thing? I'm their number one fan. Go.
COLIN HILDING: Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers did an exhibition game here in Winnipeg a couple of years ago, and Aaron Rodgers famously showed up in a Canadian tuxedo in honour of Winnipeg. There were people at work asking if Jamie was going to be stalking him at the airport. So I don't even know if she understands football the game, but she loves Aaron Rodgers.
BEN WATERWORTH: Isn't he with Shailene Woodley?
COLIN HILDING: I know he was once upon a time. I thought he would have better taste in that.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I think that he's got very good taste. So how about this? Because I'm clearly connected. I'll break them up so that Jamie can have Aaron and I can have Shailene. So there you go.
COLIN HILDING: Deal.
BEN WATERWORTH: And you can have Bart Swing.
COLIN HILDING: And I'm the only one who loses in this.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, you're not. You get Bart Swing. You're the winner of all this. What a man. And Jarrod can just have Oscar and Esther. Actually, no, you can't have Esther. I want them all. Colin, thank you for joining us.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, you're perfectly welcome. You're perfectly welcome, sir.
BEN WATERWORTH: What is for breakfast, by the way?
COLIN HILDING: It's just oatmeal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, it's just oatmeal.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oatmeal. No Olympians on the side of that box?
COLIN HILDING: I did enter a contest, though, to win one of those Sobeys. Yes, Esther Ledeck. And Ben's going to claim her. But one of those Sobeys packages, my cousin won one, and she was sent Oreos and Kraft Dinner and everything that they sponsor. Peanut butter.
BEN WATERWORTH: What has happened to Canada since I've left? You've got to enter now to win groceries. Can you just go buy them?
COLIN HILDING: No, no, it's an Olympic contest. It's all the companies that have sponsored the athletes through Sobeys.
BEN WATERWORTH: But you still got to win groceries? Like, you can't afford to pay them? We're so poor in Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it's just part of the contest. You're going to get, hey, you're going to understand when your package finally arrives, and you're going to have a very nice Sobeys Olympic grocery bag in there with Penny and Andre on it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm not holding out hope it's going to arrive before I leave. I'm probably going to be in New York in like three months. I'm going to have a package arrive for you today.
COLIN HILDING: Good point.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good to see.
COLIN HILDING: I could have saved the shipping. It would have taken two days to get to New York.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now it's going to be stuck in a stretch. It's probably going to boat somewhere in New Zealand right now. So anyway, remember to vote for us in the Sports Podcast Awards. Still in number one. Go ask sportspodcastawards.com. Sign up, vote, all the fun stuff. And remember to like us and subscribe and all that kind of fun stuff on social media and all the different podcasting platforms. Until tomorrow, my name is Ben. Shout out to Jason Momoa. Put a sock in it, Mountain! And remember, go left.
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